Permutation lock



Aug. 2l, 1934. G. BoLoGNlNs 1,970,541

PERMUTATION Loox v Filed July 2g, 1952 `2 sheets-sheet 1 Patented Aug'. 21, 1934 1 rsnno'rs'non Lock Giovanni Bolognini. nomas. nay application July ze, mz, seri-1 n. msu

`m muy 1m14.193s v 1 Claim. (Cl. 'Il-53) My present invention has for its object to provide a steering wheel and steering rod connecting and disconnecting device for motor cars comprising an opening and-closing device for the starting and/or ignition circuits.

My said improveddevice has the following advantages:

(l) No key is needed for locking and unlocking the steering wheel when provided with the inven- 0 non, thereby avoiding the trauma of keeping and the inconvenience of losing or mislaying same.

(2) Whilst any key is liable of being more or less easily imitated and used by strangers, and any lock is liable of being broken by easily obtainn able means, my improved steering wheel can by no means be tampered with, because for operating same it would be necessary to form or compose a secret word only known to the owner.

A thief is incapable of guessing at a moment's notice among hundreds and thousands of combinations the right one for making the steering wheeloperable, which latter cannot be done by force. A

It is obvious that the owner or driver may at n any time, by an easy operation, change the secret word of the .lock concealed in my improved steering wheel, in case of the said secret word having been revealed to strangers casually or otherwise. n (3) When the steering wheel is left in its safety position, which means unlocked from the steering rod, the car cannot be driven nor trailed, but may be pushed on -by hand or by slowly steering with the lock bearing part,or by steering the front wheels by hand. `This vis useful in case of the l parked or garaged car having to be moved. It

is obvious'that this advantage is'lacking in the cars with ordinary safety devices, many of which lock the change and steering gears.

(4) In certain cases the open precautionary measures taken by owners or drivers for locking and making thief-proof their cars, for instance in the garage of friends, may be offensive to the latter. There is nothing offensive in my improved safety device because except for interrupting the current for saving purposes, no visible precautions are taken,.whilst nobody will 'be capable of tampering with the machine, the steering wheel j being disconnected from the steering rod and thus w loose on the same.

(5) By a single operation and without any key or tool the double effect of interrupting the current and making the steering wheel useless is obtained.

v5|; In order that my said invention may be `better understood I am going to describe same with reference to the annexed drawings in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of improved steering wheel according to invention,

Fig. 2apartial section on line A-B of Fig. 1,

Fig'. 3 a section on larger scale, of the main part of my improved safety device, whilst Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 illustrate details.

The steering wheel 1- has a central disk 2 mounted between plates 3 and 4 which latter are made rigid in their rotary movement with regard to disk 2 by a pin or key 5 and connected by a. ring 6 being screwed on to the central extension 'l of plate 4. The said extension 7 has a central bore so as to be capable of being applied to the upper end of the steering rod (not illustrated). Between disk 2 and plate 4 there isa springpressed ball or spherical stop designed for determining the exact cooperating position between disk 2 and plates 3 and 4 which-position may be indicated by an arrow on the outside.

A cup 9 mounted on the steering pillar 10 extends near disk 2 for preventing plates 3 and 4 being tampered with by tongs or other tools so as to fraudulently make them rigid with the steering wheel l.

'I'he object of my present invention is mainly to provide a device in which a secret or combination lock 1l is combined with plate 3, and disk 2 is combined with plate 4, the lock being designed for making these elements rigid between themselves and the steering wheel 1 rigid with the steering rod.

The said locking device -11 is shown in a sectional detail view in Fig. v3 and substantially comprises a pin or pivot 12 connected to the handle 13 by a screw 14. Pin 12 is capable of various angular positions with respect to handle 13 in each of which it is fixed by screw 14, the 95 said angular positions being determined by teeth 15 formed both on handle 13 and corresponding end of pin l2'. jIhe latter will preferably have twenty-four teeth 15 corresponding to the twenty-four letters of the alphabet, and in front 100 of each tooth 15 there will be grooves 16 in its outer face cooperating with spring-pressed stop ball 17 pushed by spring into the said grooves 16, so that in order to obtain rotation of handle 13 itisnecessarytomakeballl'lsnapintoeachof 105 grooves 18 in order to ascertain (by feeling or hearing) of how many letters pin12 has been angularly shifted for the purpose indicated hereinafter.

Pin 12 is provided withthree teeth 18, 19 and ug each of which co-operates with toothed sleeves 21', 22, 23 respectively.

Each of the toothed sleeves is inserted into outer rings 24, 25, 26 respectively. The outer rings are substantially alike, see Figs. 5 and 6. `l'iswillbeseenfromig.theriughas amilled crown 27, a letter crown with thealphabetie letters 28 and a crown with hemispherical recesses 29 adapted for cooperating with the elastic stop balls 30.

TheringshowninFig.5hasaninnertooth 31 cooperating with the outer teeth 32 or 33 of sleeves 21 and 22, or 23, respectively, Figs. '1, 8, 9, 10. The said tooth 31 permits of placing canal 34 or respectively 35 of rings; 21, 22 or 23 in front of any letter engraved in crown 28 of rings (24,

The above named members are mounted in the way shown in Fig. 3 the one behind the other. Ring 24 bears on ring 36 which latter has a passage 37, a bore 38 for cooperating withpin 39, and teeth 40. v

When canals 37, 34, 34 and 35 are in line (in Fig'. 3 only canal 37 and canal 34 of sleeve 22 beinginline)thethreeteeth18. 19and20may pass through the series of members 36, 21, 22 and 23 without meeting with any impediment, tooth 18 having its movement limited in direction towards the exit end by the face 41. 'Ihc whole of members 36, 24, 21, 25, 22, 26 and 23 are kept in place by nut 42 screwed into body 43 of the device, in which an upper window 44 permits reading the crowns 28 of the rings.

Pin 12 ends in a screw threaded tubular part 45 in which the insulating block 46 is screwed which carries the contact pin 47 by which two elastic contact elements 48 (one of which is shown in Fig. 3) are electrically connected.

Through contacts 48 and pin 47 the circuit of the electric installation of car, comprising igniting and eventually starting devices, is closed.

End 45 of pin 12 is slightly bevelledat 49 to favourv insertion of pin 12 into the bore 50 providedinplate4soastomakedisk2risidwith plates 3 and 4. A y

0n the inclined conicalsurfaces 51 and 52 there is a-crown of alphabetical letters o! thesame number'as those of the above said crowns 3 and 4.

A spring 53 tends to shift the handle 13 out wards and consequently extract pin 12 from boro in order to free disk 2and unlock the steering My above described improved safety device is operated as follows:

In mounting the device for the rst time, or when buying a new car with which the device is to be wedsleeves 21,22 and 23 are mounted .wheel 1 from the steering rod.

troducedintothetubullrbodylntowhich positionwithrespecttopin screw 14 sothat itscrown 32 casinganadcoactingwiththe'lateralteeih boltlyielllbllletllllthellel'ill.ldjlfell 54withoutanypressureontheassemhledmembersbeingexerciscmbutpreventingcxtnctionot pin12(evenafterleaving1mscrewedscrew14) by its face 55,-the whole assembly is mounted inplace,asshownlnFlg.3.

At that moment pin 12 withhandle 13still areinthe outermost position (notillustra'tcd), andthereforedisk2isloosewithrespecttoplates Eland4,whilstcontactsddonotclosetheelec-v tric circuit owing to the conductive member, name1ypin47,beinginitsretractedposition.

Whencanals37,34,34and35areinline,thc handleanditspinmaybepushedintothepositionshowninFig.3,andevena1ittlebeyond, aslongastooth20doesnotabutonface55ot nut42'.1nthispositionthehandlemaybero tatedanynumberofletteraandeachpasagc fromonelettertoanotherwillhesignalledbya snapofballl'lwithgroovesic. In thiswaytheteethotthepinwillgooutotalinementwiththepassingcanals,andatterrelease o! the handle the latter, operated by spring 53, will be restored to its outer position, bearing mi tooth20ofb1indteeth5'l.

Furthermorerlngs24and25mayberotateduyl hand throughacertainanglesoastomake andsaidhandlemembenmeanscarriedby 

